250 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



terms with their neighbours. The valley of Chang Chenmo, 

 north of the Pangong Lake, and the ground between the Niti I 

 Pass and the Sutlej, are the only two easily accessible places • 

 where yak may be met with. Beyond Chang Chenmo there \ 

 is said to be good ground on the Karakash, but to cross the ; 

 Linzinthung plains would require special arrangements, and i 

 ponies would have to be taken instead of the ordinary tame • 

 yaks on account of the scarcity of grass. An old wild bull | 

 yak is a magnificent beast ; he is nearly jet black, with a little ' 

 grey about the muzzle and forehead. Though fifteen hands in \ 

 height, his legs are short and sturdy. The long shaggy hair a 

 which droops from his body reaches down to his knees, and 

 sometimes almost to the ground ; and his huge swab of a tail 

 rather adds to than detracts from his beauty. The white tails 

 which are brought for sale are those of tame yaks ; a wild bull's 

 tail is such an unwieldy mass of hair that it is not at all the \ 

 sort of thing to have flipping round one's head on a hot evening, 'i 

 Tame yaks have often a good deal of white about them.cj 

 Wild yaks with white patches have occasionally been shot, but • 

 only cows as far as the writer can learn ; wild bulls appears 

 always to be black. The Tartars say that these mottled wild- j 

 yaks are hybrids between the tame bulls, which are turned out ). 

 to graze on the hills in the summer, and wild cows. i ^ 



Captain Duff contributes the following interesting accounf '- 

 of a successful stalk after yak : ' 



I was out one day after a couple of Thibetan antelope, and not Tj 

 being able to get near them, was looking about to see if there was \ 

 any game farther up the nullah. Right away up the head of the j 

 valley we saw a large herd of dhong, about twenty or more, with ■ 

 a lot of young ones, and even at that distance we could distinguish > 

 one much bigger than the rest. The next day, a heavy fall of snow ■ 

 prevented my going out ; but on the third day, I started to try for X 

 them. It was a long walk to get anywhere near the herd, and of j 

 course, just as I was beginning to go a bit carefully, and take \ 

 advantage of cover, I put up three very fair Oves Amnion^ but the ' 

 dhong did not seem to notice them, and the wind all through was < 

 in my favour. A bit farther on I came across one of those beastly ^ 



